Crucial equipment
At the Incitec ammonia plant in Queensland, Australia, shutting
down a compressor train can mean shutting down the entire plant. At the same
time, a failure in the machinery could cause extensive damage and endanger
workers. So, the information system for such machinery absolutely has to be
accurate and reliable.
Last year the alarm was sounded by a Bently Nevada monitoring
system hooked up to a critical 18,000 horsepower compressor train. The recently
installed Dynamic Data Manager indicated increased vibration levels in the
turbine and gearbox driving this massive piece of rotating machinery, and
provided information leading the engineer on duty to conclude that the machine
train had suffered a cracked shaft. If the shaft actually broke the results
could be devastating, so the engineer decided to shut down the machine
train-knowing that he would bear full responsibility for the expensive down
time if no shaft crack were found.
Six hours after the machine was shut down, a crack was located in
the gearshaft that spelled the imminent failure of the shaft. Had the machine
been allowed to continue running, it would almost certainly have severely
damaged the machine train, endangered the safety of plant personnel, and
contributed to an extended and costly plant shut down. However, the Bently
Nevada monitoring system was able to prevent such a catastrophic occurrence
with its timely warning.
This example demonstrates the critical importance of the Bently
Nevada Corporation's products. Bently Nevada is the world leader in
manufacturing rotating machinery information systems, which are used in
petroleum, chemical and power generation facilities. Tom Clark, design and
drafting supervisor at Bently Nevada, explained that the machine train on a
large piece of rotating machinery might be hooked up with hundreds of probes
which measure thousands of points, collecting data on vibration, temperature,
shaft displacement and other information that signals wear and other repair
needs.
Recently the company contracted EDA, Inc. for three months to
implement an automated design system that automates both engineering and
drafting tasks for their monitoring cabinets, including monitor wiring
diagrams. The automated system will generate 25 to 30 D-size drawings less than
15 minutes after the engineer enters client specifications. The system inserts
more than 1,500 master drawings into each of the assembly drawings after
looking up more than 40 tables and calculating size and location of each item
inserted.
Time and cost savings on the system, which has only been in place
for a few months, have already been dramatic. For instance, the time needed to
create the initial proposal drawings for a client has been shaved down by 90
percent.
"Probably at least that," Mr. Clark said. "And there's no drafting
involved."
Larry Caldwell, senior engineer, noted that "Before, we had three
engineers and two draftsmen to do this job. Now it's just two engineers."
Cost of product cut in half
The time needed to completely fill an order, including
manufacturing time, has been cut by more than half-from eight weeks to about
three.
"To me it's really a blessing because I can do a lot more work in a
lot less time," Mr. Caldwell said.
Possibly more importantly, the cost of producing a client's system
has been cut in half, allowing Bently Nevada to drop its prices while
maintaining a healthy profit margin.
Previously, designs were not standardized and about 80 percent of
the systems produced were custom-designed. According to Mr. Clark, the only
time a design would usually be produced more than once was for the same
company.
"Every now and then Westinghouse would say, 'we want another one
like the one you built for us last year,' but even then we'd still have to
change all the tagging."
The automated system has allowed for an almost complete reversal of
the custom-to-standard design ratio, with only about 30 percent of the
company's orders currently nonstandard.
The automation software package includes Synthesis and a copy of
DRAWING Librarian for ease of use and quick display and printing of the
drawings, avoiding the need for a costly CAD system at every workstation.
Future: sales quotation automation
The next desired phase of the project would automate design one
level above the current program by automating the process of selecting what
types of probes will go where on the actual machine train. This will allow
Bently Nevada salespeople to do complete proposal designs right there with the
clients. With a sales staff that operates all over the world, this would
drastically cut time and increase accuracy for their proposals.
Both Mr. Clark and Mr. Caldwell said initial client response to the
system has been positive, and they expect it to be even more so as time goes
on.
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